How Do Change Management Tools Make the Process Faster?

Change is good… unless it takes too long. The problem with change management processes is that they can be long and drawn out. By the time the change is approved, it might be too late for the company to be competitive.

How can you speed up change management processes without sacrificing important components such as testing the change or complying with regulations? The right change management tools enable you to accelerate change management processes while balancing other demands.

Why Is Faster Change Management Important?

“Shouldn’t change be deliberate and thought out?” you ask. “What’s with the need for speed? Don’t you risk failure if you change too fast?”

Slow and steady might win the race in Aesop’s fables, but in the business world, no one has time to plod along like the tortoise. If you don’t change quickly, you risk being left behind. History is littered with examples of companies that didn’t pivot quickly enough to address changing conditions – you don’t want to join their number.

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Does Fast Mean Failure? No

Just because you move quickly doesn’t mean you’re doomed to failure. What it does mean is that you have to carefully balance a number of moving parts.

Change management is complex. It involves planning, testing, communicating, scheduling, implementing, documenting, and evaluating. There’s also the component of regulatory compliance on top of that.

“Moving quickly doesn’t mean you’re doomed to failure; you just have to balance a number of moving parts”

The change management processes that many organizations use are ill-suited to implementing changes faster. Many companies use spreadsheets and emails to track the change management process. Those techniques create data silos, communication gaps, and problems.

What’s the answer to the conundrum of moving quickly yet carefully? You must choose the right change management tools.

What Are the Right Change Management Tools?

Change management software automates the change management process, making it faster and giving you the ability to control the numerous moving parts. How does it work?

This software sends out automated email notifications when action is taken, so everyone is on the same page. Change management software also enables you to establish business rules for request-for-change processes, saving time and effort. You can also keep changes on track with SLA management so that you’ve got the peace of mind that changes won’t affect service levels. Also, change management software lets you optimize request-for-change forms based on the type of change, which speeds up the change management process.

Automating the change management process solves two problems: it makes it go faster because it eliminates manual processes (such as spreadsheets and emails) and it gives you control over the other moving parts of the overall process – you have visibility into what’s going on in every aspect, including regulatory compliance. All of the data associated with the change management process is stored in a single repository.